Internal Probe for NASA Air Safety Program

NASA’s Inspector General is auditing the space agency’s handling of an $11 million aviation safety survey that NASA shut down then withheld the results from the public. The audit of the National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service program will scrutinize the history and status of NAOMS, its objectives, funding and plans for future use of the data, said the NASA IG office. Interviews with NASA staffers and the contractor will be part of the IG investigation. The Office of the Inspector General monitors the efficiency and effectiveness of NASA programs. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has agreed to release data from the safety study by the end of the year. The space agency had previously attempted to keep the NAOMS study under wraps, saying the data might harm air carriers. The survey conducted by Batelle Memorial Institute had polled thousands of commercial and general aviation pilots about safety issues. Press accounts said that the pilots reported at least twice as many bird strikes, near mid-air collisions and runway incursions as government monitoring systems show. In an Oct. 31 House Committee on Science and Technology hearing, Griffin agreed to give up the data to the congressional panel and “and any other interested party” once it is appropriately "scrubbed" to protect the anonymity of the pilots who were surveyed.